As part of a group inquiry project, my research partners and I have developed an on-line survey entitled: Opening the ‘closet’ doors: Do LGBTQ parents feel welcome in our B.C. schools? Eligibility for participation in this survey involves Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Two-Spirit or Queer (LGBTQ) parents who currently have children in the BC school system. We are also interested in hearing from LGBTQ parents whose children graduated within five years.

Here is the link to our survey: http://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/1090895/Opening-the-closet-doors-Do-same-sex-coupled-parents-feel-welcome-in-B-C-schools

Your participation in this survey is greatly valued and I would appreciate it if you also could share this link. The survey should take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.

Please be assured that this survey was carefully developed in accordance with the ethical practices of the University of British Columbia, so as to maintain the anonymity of the participants. Participation is completely voluntary and you can withdraw at any point. SurveyGizmo is hosted by a website company located in the USA and, as such, is subject to U.S. laws; in particular, the US Patriot Act which allows authorities access to the records of internet service providers. As well, the web-survey company servers record incoming IP addresses of the computer that participants use to access the survey, but no connection is made between the data and the computer’s IP address. The data will be collected in the US until the survey is completed. Immediately upon completion, the data will be transferred to an excel file, the data will be cleared from the survey base, and the account will be deleted. All paper data will be kept in a locked filing cabinet in the principal investigator’s office for five years and will be shredded after this time.

I hope you will find this task to be meaningful and interesting. If you have any questions about this study, you may contact the Principal Investigator Dr. Marilynne Waithman. She may be reached by telephone at 604-822-5822 or email at marilynnewaithman@ubc.ca .

If you have any concerns about your rights as a research participant, you may contact the Research Subject Information Line in the UBC Office of Research Services at 604-822-8598 or if long distance e-mail RSIL@ors.ubc.ca or call toll free 1-877-822-8598.